The applications to which small water craft are put runs the gamut from pollution control to recreational purposes. Numerous other applications fall in between.
Similarly, within the recreational application, numberous activities utilizing a small water vessel are encompassed. For example, such vessels are used in water skiing, fishing, and basic pleasure boating.
Typically, regardless of the intended application of a craft, the vessel or craft is, when maintained out of the water, cradled in a carriage. Such a carriage is able to be transferred from one location to another. Most frequently, the carriage takes the form of a trailer having skids supporting the hull of the craft, and at least one pair of coaxial wheels for motively supporting the carriage for movement.
Launching is accomplished by backing the trailer into a body of water into which the vessel is to be launched. If gripes are provided to hold the vessel on the carriage cradle, the gripes are removed prior to the backing of the trailer into the body of water. As the trailer enters the water and becomes submerged to an extent wherein the buoyancy of the craft will cause it to rise above the skids, the craft becomes sufficiently disengaged so that it can be maneuvered away from the support cradle. Once launching is completed, the trailer is typically, withdrawn from the water and maintained at a location on the shore proximate the launching site.
For various reasons, it is desireable to provide some means for running the trailer straight into the water generally perpendicular to the shoreline. For example, trailers known in the art can be fairly difficult to maneuver. If some means for controlling the direction which the trailer follows as it is backed into, for example, a lake is provided, a towing vehicle can be more efficiently utilized to accomplish the launching.
In industrial and commercial applications of waterborne craft, the provision of permanent tracks fixedly positioned at launching locations presents no aesthetic problem. Typically, such launching sites are at locations closely proximate other launching sites, and the whole area is characterized by an industrial or commercial atmosphere.
In the case of recreational boating launching sites, however, permanently-present tracks can prove to be an eyesore. With the current ecological trends and trends toward keeping recreational lakes in as pristine a condition as possible, permanently placed tracks can dramatically violate the primitive and unspoiled features of a lake.
Launching tracks currently available are such that removal at the end of a recreational season is difficult, if not impossible. This is the result of various factors such as the manufacture of the tracks out of heavy materials in response to a desire to maintain the tracks at a fixed distance from one another along their lengths. It is important to maintain such a spacing so that the wheels of, for example, a trailer carrying the vessel to be launched are able to ride along their corresponding tracks throughout the launching run of the trailer.
An additional problem is that, even if aesthetic considerations are not of concern, tracks are frequently not provided at inaccessible locations. Additionally, poorly maintained public access locations also are not provided with tracks.
Another significant problem is the maneuverability of trailers in which vessels to be launched are cradled. If the trailer is to be backed into the body of water using a towing vehicle, considerable skill and patience on the part of the person driving the towing vehicle are necessary. Even when the driver possesses these characteristics, many attempts are often necessary to accomplish a successful launching.
If the trailer is sought to be backed into the water manually, difficulties can be encountered because of the weight and cumbersomeness of the trailer and the cradled vessel. The energies of the person or persons seeking to launch the craft must be divided between urging the trailer toward and into the water, and maintaining the trailer from being diverted from the intended direction of launch.
It is to these problems existent in the prior art that the present invention is directed. It provides a method and apparatus for quickly and easily launching a craft after having provided streamable and recoverable rails for facilitating the launch.